Waiting for hubby to come home

So I took the kids out of the house to wait for Hubby to come home. We decided to walk out of our little cul-de-sac and happened upon an accident. After running home to call Hubby to let him know there was no way he'd be able to get home (the accident was covering the entire side of the street he'd need to come home), I also took some pictures after the paramedics and police arrived. In the first picture on the right hand side you can see the white truck that's turned on its side. Far away in the middle by the two firefighters is the other car, a black sedan. There was a man on the ground next to the car. The blare of helicopters has continued. (Before we ventured out of our little cul-de-sac we were wondering about the hovering helicopter.)

Hubby eventually had to park on a numbered street (the entire intersection was taped off, as were some of the others turning into the major street) and walk home. Of course, as he got close he was stopped over and over and had to explain that he was just trying to get home. And I suppose that was more exciting than watching the trash truck today (which is typically as exciting as a Tuesday gets around here).

Insurance woes

The health insurance companies are killing me. Hubby got his PhD at the end of May. He worked for free, basically, for June and July until his postdoc officially started the first of August. So we were supposed to have insurance coverage then. But we didn't have insurance numbers, cards or doctors assigned to us. Only in the past week or so have we gotten insurance cards, but it's still a mess. I tried to make an appointment to see the dentist, and even though the dentist's name is printed on the card, we don't show up in their records.

And the actual doctor is another mess. The insurance company randomly assigned us to a doctor, not the group that we wanted. So we have to switch it. No problem, it should take 30-60 days. Today we find out it will be effective November 1. But here is the problem: they assigned us, the entire family, to a practice that does not see children. It's flu season. Princess has been sick every other week from school, and if the minute clinics won't see children under the age of four, I don't see them administering a flu shot either. So meanwhile, we're stuck with a practice of two doctors who only do internal medicine. I miss my medical group--they had all of the specializiations (like OB/GYN and pediatrics), after-hour care, and they could almost always fit me in for an appointment the day that I called and needed them. (Contrast that with Kaiser, which I had the past year and was terrible. Not only did it take three weeks to get an appointment from the day I'd call, but it would all be through an automated phone tree AND my co-pay was almost a hundred dollars. But I digress.) What am I supposed to do if I have sick kids?

Falling off the wagon

Universal Yarn's Deluxe Chunky yarn in pink and purple for a chunky-weight Op-Art baby blanket for Itty-Bitty.
Ella Rae Extrafine Heathers, four skeins (I know only three are pictured, I already started knitting with the fourth) four a ribbed baby jacket.
One single skein of Louisa Harding La Salute in Shade 5, for those mohair baby booties in Last Minute Knitted Gifts.
One skein of Indulgence with Aloe, Color 110, because I've been itching to knit a pair of socks out of yarn "infused" with aloe (even if it's fingering weight).
Three skeins of Mirasol Hacho, shade 307 (Northern Lights?) but two different dye lots.
One skein of Mirasol Hacho in shade 308 (Velvet?)

So much for my yarn diet.

WIP snoozing

So this is what I was working on before it was apparent that I totally did not have enough yarn to finish it. This is the sample sweater from Tuulia's Tailored Sweater tutorial. Set-in sleeves from the top down! But like I said, I'm taking a break. Since then, I've made another Aviatrix and I've started working on a Ribbed Baby Jacket (the Debbie Bliss one) for a friend who's expecting soon. I found mondo yarn at Tuesday Morning today so I indulged. I'm hoping to crank out some quick projects, we'll see.

A vacation like none other

Bubby got back from vacation today. Yes, he's four years old and goes on vacations without his parents. He went with my parents. To San Diego and Arizona (to visit some of my extended family). He apparently had a great time. On Friday (which is when he got to visit my uncles, who are doctors at a hospital) he first went swimming at the hotel he was staying at. Then he went to the hospital and got to watch a surgery. Then he played some putt-putt golf with my teenage cousin (who shares the same birthday as Bubby, though obviously not the same year). My auntie had all sorts of things for him to bring home: LEGOs, T-shirts, a remote-controlled car, and this:

I'm sure you recognize the two stethoscopes, but you want to know what that other thing is? It's an endoscopic stapler. I'm not sure who thought that was a good souvenir for a four-year-old, but that's gonna get put away. Apparently, it's something that's only used once in the surgery and then disposed of. When it got home, Hubby discovered that it still had staples in it. Like I said, it's gonna get put away.

Bubby not only goes on more vacations than I do, I have the suspicion he goes on nicer vacations than I do as well.

Catching up. . .

The Martell VSOP Cognac isn't mine. But it was brought over to enjoy, so enjoy it we did. Drinking cognac was very different from drinking Scotch. The sweetness from the wine or the casks or something was very apparent. And obviously, there was no peat. This one is mine:
Pacific Rim's Riesling. It's a very sweet dessert wine that's just delicious. The first bottle of this that I got was a birthday gift, since then I've bought two additional bottles. This is that last bottle (I'm saving it for something special).
And this is for Hubby. Which I think I already commented on. It doesn't say how old it is, so it's not even twelve years (after tasting it, we had some speculation that it might not even be eight), and it goes down a bit rough. It's better chilled. Kind of like our pathetic margaritas from a few weeks ago.

I'm going to miss drinking when I can't anymore.

A beer to drink forever

I'm not really a beer drinker. I think it stems from all of the watered-down beer I tried in college, but I only went to two frat parties while I was there, so that can't be it. Let's just say that while I've tried lots of beers (of many provenances), I never found one that I completely, wholly loved. (Heineken was okay, and what's the one with that little floaty thing in the bottle? That was respectable, but not something I'd want to drink a lot of.) But last night, my world changed.

Fuller's London Porter is the most delicious beer I've ever tried. It has flavor, it has body, it has depth. I might even reach and say that it has soul. It was so damn good. It's a beer I would drink again, every day. Because it was that damn good.

While we're continuing with our Anglophilia, I've recently been exposed to Strongbow Dry Cider. Yes, it's a hard cider. But way better than that Hornsby or Woodchuck stuff you'd buy as an undergrad. Maybe because it's dry. I've typically gone for "sweet" rather than "dry," but this is really good, so I need to expand my horizons.

Hubby got a new Scotch (Bowmore Islay), a peaty single malt. A bit rough going down, but tasty. More pictures to come later.

Don't take it seriously

No, the beer isn't for her. And the Cheetos were just for props (we really don't like Cheetos). And of course, it was today that we ran into one of the preschool teachers from Bubby's old preschool. Who apparently cannot take a joke, unlike the other guy who passed by and said "She doesn't look twenty-one!" Princess was quite pleased to be pushing a cart all by herself, regardless of what was in the cart.

Homeschool Week at the Science Discovery Museum

Tuesday was fossils, Wednesday was forces and motion. Today was rocks and tomorrow will be owls. I signed Bubby up for the first/second grade classes with some reservations, not because I thought the subject material would be too hard for him, but because he'd be the smallest kid in the class. I didn't think too much about signing him up for the third through fifth grade classes because the subject material (building a circuit, dissecting a cow's eye) was a bit more sophisticated and well, come on, he's four. He seems to be doing fine in his classes though, holding his own and whatnot. I feel weird though, because today one of the teachers pulled me aside to tell me how smart Bubby is. And he was gushing. And it was weird, and it made me feel weird. I think the anxiety is from fear that he'll never be "normal" and that he'll never make friends. Is this a normal anxiety? Because he's said he doesn't want friends. (Of course, yesterday he had a playdate with his one and only friend, a little girl from his preschool from last year, but I digress.) Some of the kids from the mommy group I'm in have wanted to play with him but he doesn't want to he'll have no interest in them whatsoever. When I've signed him up for class he ends up not interested in playing with any of the kids there. But when we randomly go to places like the nature center or the park, he'll find an older (age five or six. . . once a group of eighth graders) girl to play with. And he'll play really well with them. But with kids his own age, or older boys, it's a mess. He'll have ideas about how and what to play, and they won't listen to him. And I'm afraid he'll be lonely. Hubby thinks he just needs to meet people he gets along with. I don't know.

We have to get onto three different freeways to get to the museum. The only good thing is that I can take the carpool lane (even switching freeways) almost the entire way over and back, the only catch is going through six lanes of traffic to get to and from the carpool lane.

Just one more day of mondo freeway madness. Since it's Friday, I'm hoping to leave right after Bubby's class so that we can miss that "leaving work early to start the weekend early" traffic, but with the way the kids have been, I'm sure it will be hard. I am looking forward to this week being over and us being able to go back to a more regular routine that does not involve an hour or so of driving on the freeway every day. The classes have been great though, it's been wonderful exposure.

FO-Imogen

Ta-da! This yarn (which I called, A, B and C from left to right):

became this sweater:


To avoid major pooling, I ended up switching between all three skeins of yarn for the back (as it was, I ended up switching the direction of skeins A and B because the first way still had pooling), then making the "top" of the sweater the "bottom" and vice versa, so that I wouldn't have to pick up from my very loose edge that had all of the carried yarn. My right arm was skeins A and C; my left arm was skeins B and C. I tried to use up skeins A and B as much as possible on the visible parts of the sweater, so the front left was also B and C, the front right was A and C, and the very top between the short rows (basically, the row that was knit or purl all the way to the other side) was C, the red skein.

Originally I was going to put EZ afterthought pockets into the sides (since it's a side-to-side cardigan, I'd have vertical pockets) but after I finished, I realized that the front sides curl open too much and the pockets would show. That's the only bummer. Well, that and the fact that thanks to that one red skein, the entire FO is warmer than anticipated. Very autumny, which is appropriate for now (forget the fact that I live in a beach community where everyone runs around in shorts, tank tops and flip-flops everyday).

I'd been planning on knitting my mom one of these too (I like to amortize the cost of patterns I buy, what can I say) but she doesn't like how the front edge curls and is longer than the hem/bottom. So we'll see if I end up making one for her or if she changes her mind (as it is, we can't seem to finalize on a yarn yet). But I'll probably end up making Itty Bitty another one when she grows out of her Noro Taiyo one.

FO-- Summer Sweater

Good thing I'm posting this just as summer's ending, I feel like I'm getting it in just under the radar. I actually finished this almost a month ago, but neglected to take FO pics. As it is, I'm not completely happy with it--I knit the provisional cast-on at the neck edge into my knitting, so it flips up ever so slightly (alas, I did not see TechKnitter's post about sewn hems until I was doing my sleeves), the neckline is wider than I would prefer (it's almost Flashdance-esque) and I think the yoke is too big. It's quite roomy. But non-itchy, since it's merino and linen (Louet MerLin, worsted).

In theory, I'd wanted a nice, plain sweater, but now that I see it in picture form, it's quite plain. Boring even. So I'm thinking of frogging it and turning it into a Short-Sleeved Cardigan with Ribbing from Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits, but with long sleeves and worsted weight instead of bulky. And a different increase because I'm not sure I really care for the holey YOs. But the linen made it kind of a pain to knit with, and having to knit another sweater with that yarn. . . but it would be great to have something wearable. To be continued. . .

Meet the New Contenders

The boys picked up some new bottles last night. The Aardmore was not as peaty/salty as the Laphroig, and similar to the Highland Park. It was quite good with barbecue chips too. The Ileach was more similar to the Laphroig, but smoother and without that medicinal taste. But it was too light, too. There's a rumor that it's unaged Lagavulin (as in, not 12- or 18-years old but in fact, younger than that), so that would make sense.

This time I sampled and while I was all right with the Aardmore, I wasn't thrilled with the Ileach. The boys, however, were quite satisfied with their new acquisitions and deemed them "top five" material.

Igloo-building

When I was a kid, there were always all of those things I wanted to order from the Scholastic book order and I never could, because my mom said no and I didn't have the money (even if I'd had the money, I'm pretty sure my mom would have told me that it was junk and dissuade me). But now I'm a mom, I can order them for my kids!

So we made the igloo today (with fake snow, in the yellow bowl--you just add water) and it was quite amusing. It didn't come out perfectly and we had to do it on the paper napkin so it wouldn't slide, but now the little packet of snow is gone and we still have the molds.

Two words come to mind: Jello Igloo.

At the farm

How long will it last?

Upon Hubby's recommendation, I've been using GrooveShark for my online musical needs. Previously I'd been using Pandora, but I like being able to pick exactly which songs I listen to, and there aren't any of those annoying Jaguar ads. (I understand Jaguar is trying to broaden their customer base, but seriously, that probably means 50-year-olds and not just 60-and-up, is Pandora truly the best way to reach that target audience?) I'm no longer limited by a couple of artists for my theme and I can cross genres. But I wonder how long GrooveShark will last; surely the RIAA will find a way to shut them down. But until then. . .